During Gonzalo SÃ¡nchez de Lozadaâ€™s first administration, which emphasized the importance of foreign investment for Bolivian growth and development, Yerko Kukoc was Prefect of PotosÃ­, and thus presided over the massacre, in November and December 1996, of eleven miners and community peasants in Amayapampa and Capasirca, which was carried out to protect the investments and pardon the environmental abuses of Da Capo and Vista Gold, North American mining corporations. It was not surprising, then, that as Minister of Government during SÃ¡nchez de Lozadaâ€™s second and much bloodier administration, Kukoc was able to stomach the killing of eighty-one civilians in September-October 2003; anything to stay in power long enough to benefit from the export of Bolivian liquid gas through Chile to California. As Minister of Government, Kukoc was a vehement advocate of the theory of a â€œnarcoterrroristâ€ conspiracy, directed by coca growersâ€™ movement and opposition party leader, Evo Morales, and designed to topple the government. Kukoc was perhaps the most visible Bolivian government figure in the US-led â€œwar on drugs and terror.â€

On October 17, 2003, Kukoc was on the plane to Miami with deposed president SÃ¡nchez de Lozada, and his hangman, former Minister of Defense Carlos SÃ¡nchez BerzaÃ­n (the trio narrowly escaped being lynched in public). However, Kukoc, who managed to take with him espionage equipment, donated by the US Embassy and worth $100,000, apparently failed to settle accounts before leaving, and returned after $300,000 in cash was found in the hardware store of a lifelong friend, Milder ArzadÃºm MonzÃ³n, in Santa Cruz on December 7. Both the friend and the hardware store were under investigation for money laundering (El Juguete Rabioso, 21 December 2003, 8-9). ArzadÃºm MonzÃ³n, according to the DEA, did prison time in PanamÃ¡ for trafficking, and, according to Interpol, was investigated in BogotÃ¡ in 1986 for shipping coca paste from Bolivia to Colombia, though he is not currently under investigation for trafficking in Bolivia.

Since part of the money found in ArzadÃºmâ€™s hardware store came from â€œsecret expenses,â€ it is not hard to see why Soruco would want to protect Kukoc from the District Attorney; a cut of the spoils was almost surely coming to him. But a series of questions present themselves: if $141,000 came from the â€œsecret expenses,â€ where did the rest of the $300,000â€”$80,000 of which belonged to Kukoc, and $71,000 to ArzadÃºmâ€”come from? And what were public monies doing in private hands, mixed together with funds of unknown origin? Why store them in envelopes in a hardware store? Since District Attorney AÃ±ez wants answers to these and other questions, Kukocâ€™s house in Santa Cruz is currently surrounded by special police, waiting for Kukoc to leave so they can arrest him.

SÃ¡nchez de Lozadaâ€™s Minister of Government in 1997, Victor Hugo Canelas, recently revealed that â€œGoniâ€ charged the state $7,000 per month in â€œsupersalariesâ€â€”not subject to taxationâ€”during his first administration. Canelas argues, â€œWe have to fight against a real mafia, which Goni heads like a â€˜Godfatherâ€™â€¦. Iâ€™ve been in meetings in which Goni called in judges and DAs, many times to pay them offâ€ (Pulso, January 16-22, 2004, 16). According to Canelas, as far as justice is concerned, the weakest link in Goniâ€™s past is not the massacres of September-October, but the unprecedented degree of mafia-style corruption and payoffs that characterized both of his administrations. True to form, â€œGoni,â€ Boliviaâ€™s wealthiest mining entrepreneur, passed New Yearâ€™s Eve in his old neighborhood, Calacoto, in La Paz, with generals and colonels and suitcases full of cash to hand around as party favors.

It appears that Kukoc may fall. If so, he will probably try to drag the rest of the gang down with himâ€”Kukoc is not the type to tough it out on his own. The question then becomes: how deep will District Attorney AÃ±ez go? Will Mesa be up to the task of bringing to justice the men he worked with, day in and day out, through October 2003? Can the social movements that overthrew Goni and crew force the new administration to take on such formidable criminals, whose continued plotting presents the greatest danger to the survival of Mesaâ€™s new government?